Page 79

•TribalPaginaIntera.indd

BARKCLOTH OF THE PACIFIC 77 FIG. 4 (right): Barkcloth, kua’ula. Hawaiian Islands, eastern Polynesia. Late 18th century. Barkcloth, pigment. 171.5 x 71 cm. British Museum, inv. Oc,HAW.19. © The Trustees of the British Museum. FIG. 3 (below): Barkcloth beater, e’e. Pitcairn Island, eastern Polynesia. Early to mid 1800s. Whalebone. L: 44.4 cm. British Museum, inv. Oc1931,1010.1. Purchased from Lt. Col. Lanyon, 1931. © The Trustees of the British Museum. from one locality to the next, one time period to another, and to highlight the potency of certain designs in relation to the status of the wearer. Some of the earliest and most striking textiles in the exhibition were Hawaiian garments made of a special type of ribbed cloth known as kua’ula, which was used for men’s loincloths in the late 1700s. These are painted with bold, angular red-and-black designs that characterize Hawaiian barkcloth from this period (fi g. 4). The zigzag motif symbolizes the spine, a sacred part of the body in eastern Polynesia because of its associations with ancestors and genealogy. Hawaiian chiefs acquired a right to rule through their descent lines, and these cloths were likely worn by high-ranking men. Although they were the oldest cloths on display, their striking color and design aimed to emphasize the visually rich nature of many Pacifi c cloths to the unfamiliar visitor. The exhibition spanned the Pacifi c, from New Guinea in the west to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east, with clusters of garments giving visitors the opportunity to recognize the distinctive elements of barkcloth from each location. Beginning with Papua New Guinea, two nioge (women’s skirts) from Oro Province made in recent years by artists Sarah Ugibari (fi g. 5) and Fate Savari introduced this region, and specifi cally, the Ömie people, who live inland on the slopes of the volcano Huvaemo. For the Ömie, barkcloth increased in symbolic signifi cance in the mid-twentieth century, when tattooing designs began to be applied to cloths following a ban on tattooing enforced by the fi rst missionaries. These skirts were juxtaposed with a trio of men’s loincloths from Collingwood Bay on the northeastern coast of Oro Province, made more than a hundred years earlier, around 1900 (fi g. 6). Clan designs from this period included representations of snakes, marine animals, and volcanoes, while others depicted cultural objects, feather plumes, for example, that were an element of headdresses. Today, sacred clan designs are still closely guarded and cannot be worn by outsiders, while non-sacred designs may be applied to cloths for


•TribalPaginaIntera.indd
To see the actual publication please follow the link above